Niagara Falls distillery teams up with North York business in partnership

A Niagara Falls distillery is joining forces with a North York business in an effort to bring more products to the public through an increased distribution network.

Niagara Falls Craft Distillers (NFCD) and United Craft Inc. (UC) has just announced their merger, offering up ” contract production and sales services to other independent Ontario producers in both alcohol and non alcohol segments.”

In a release, the brand new United Niagara Beverages (UNB) said, “The new strategic partnership was born after close collaboration between the companies over the past two years, where they identified new opportunities and shared a common vision for the fast-evolving beverage marketplace now facing profound demographic shifts and changing consumer tastes.”

The UNB said Statistics Canada has identified “that 2022 beer sales saw their largest decline in ten years and wine sales recorded their lowest sales level since 1949.”

“Meanwhile Ready-to-Drink spirit-based beverages have grown considerably, as have low/no-alcohol segments and functional drinks. These changing consumer preferences have heightened the need for beverage innovation.”

Andy Murison, CEO of NFCD, said of the partnership, “We really value United Craft’s commitment to innovation and their ability to create, launch and then broadly distribute compelling branded products consumers are clamoring for.”

“Their expertise, combined with our 50-plus years of senior leadership production experience, will position UNB as an incubator and facilitate dynamic new products to market faster and quicker.”

Pat Macdonald, CEO of United Craft, explained that UNB’s flexible pilot system will fine tune raw ideas, with its disciplined production process to scale up quantities and extensive sales and distribution expertise to launch products into the market.

She emphasized that, “This new partnership will enable United Craft to transition to brick-and-mortar while teaming up with a renowned partner. We can realize new ideas in a range of market segments faster for ourselves and others.”